nice

nice
\ \ [13] Nice is one of the more celebrated examples in English of a word changing its meaning out of all recognition over the centuries – in this case, from ‘stupid’ to ‘pleasant’. Its ultimate source was Latin nesciusignorant’, a compound adjective formed from the negative particle ne- and the base of the verb scīreknow’ (source of English science). This passed into English via Old French nice with minimal change of meaning, but from then on a slow but sure semantic transformation took place, from ‘foolish’ via ‘shy’, ‘fastidious’, and ‘refined’ to on the one hand ‘minutely accurate or discriminating’ (as in a ‘nice distinction’) and on the other ‘pleasant, agreeable’ (first recorded in the second half of the 18th century).
\ \ Cf.SCIENCE

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • nice — W2S1 [naıs] adj ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 1¦(good)¦ 2¦(friendly)¦ 3¦(something you want)¦ 4 it s nice to know (that) 5 have a nice day! 6 nice to meet you 7 (it s been) nice meeting/talking to you 8¦(not nice)¦ 9 nice try 10 ni …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Nice — (n[imac]s), a. [Compar. {Nicer} (n[imac] s[ e]r); superl. {Nicest}.] [OE., foolish, fr. OF. nice ignorant, fool, fr. L. nescius ignorant; ne not + scius knowing, scire to know. Perhaps influenced by E. nesh delicate, soft. See {No}, and {Science} …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • NICE — Chef lieu du département des Alpes Maritimes, Nice est , avec 345 675 habitants en 1990 (516 740 pour la conurbation), l’une des grandes villes françaises. Mais elle est la seule qui doive sa rapide croissance à la fonction touristique fondée ici …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • nice — [ naıs ] adjective *** ▸ 1 attractive/enjoyable ▸ 2 friendly/kind ▸ 3 for showing you like something ▸ 4 with small difference ▸ 5 skillful ▸ 6 with high moral standard ▸ + PHRASES 1. ) attractive, enjoyable, or pleasant: Your hair looks nice.… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • nice´ly — nice «nys», adjective, nic|er, nic|est, adverb. –adj. 1. that is good or pleasing; agreeable; satisfactory: »a nice face, a nice child, a nice ride, a nice day …   Useful english dictionary

  • NICE — (Heb. ניצה), capital of the Alpes Maritimes department, on the Mediterranean coast of France. The first specific mention of Jews can be found in the Statutes of Nice, enacted in 1342 while the town belonged to Provence, which compelled the Jews… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • nice — The word nice is the great cause célèbre of meaning change in English. In medieval and Renaissance literature, nice (derived from Latin nescius meaning ‘ignorant’) has a wide range of generally unfavourable meanings such as ‘foolish, stupid’ and… …   Modern English usage

  • Nice — Эта статья об утилите Unix; о британской прогрессив рок группе конца 1960 х см.: The Nice. nice  UNIX утилита, запускающая программу с измененным приоритетом для планировщика задач. Если не указано ни одного аргумента, команда nice выводит… …   Википедия

  • nice — 1 Nice, dainty, fastidious, finicky, finicking, finical, particular, fussy, squeamish, persnickety, pernickety can all mean exacting or displaying exacting standards (as in selection, judgment, or workmanship). Nice (see also CORRECT, DECOROUS)… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Nice — puede referirse a: Contenido 1 Lugares 2 Música 2.1 Grupos 2.2 Discos 3 Otros …   Wikipedia Español

  • NICE — ist der englische Name der südfranzösischen Stadt Nizza der Name der Musikgruppe The Nice das englische Wort für nett die Programmiersprache Nice (Programmiersprache) einen Unix Befehl, der das Prioritätsscheduling eines Prozesses verändern kann… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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